Various mechanical means have been proposed to target the gluteus maximus (“glute”) and related muscle groups. Studies have shown that effective glute strengthening can be performed by having the feet planted on the floor or stable surface, and the upper back supported on a bench or surface on a higher lateral plane than the feet. The hips are loaded by placing a barbell or other loaded cross member across hip area, traditionally a barbell across the lower abdomen at the lowest point when the hip is at flexion at the bottom of the motion range. The exercise is performed by initiating hip extension, driving the load upwards to the end range of the hip's extension and then returning to hip flexion.
The traditional barbell weighted hip thrust exercise loads the hip joint by placing the barbell directly across the front of the hips and the lower abdomen. This can be extremely uncomfortable and/or painful, especially as the loading increases. The small contact area, and straight shape of the barbell applies great pressure to the skin and internal organs of the area, often resulting in bruising.
Currently available products do not afford both effectiveness and comfort in a compact personal apparatus for home use. As glutes are some of the biggest and strongest muscles in the human body, developing substantial strength requires heavy force loads. While bodyweight and lightweight resistance band exercises are convenient for home use, their low loading levels render them largely limited in their effectiveness. Suitable high loadings are typically only found in a gym environment, which may be inconvenient, less safe, and without privacy.
In the market, there are currently a variety of benches for gym and home use, with added foot platforms and attachment points for resistance bands. The benches for use at gyms are not portable and still require barbells, plates, and a large footprint. Apart from these benches, there are very heavy gym-style weight-stack machines. These machines are not portable and are based on either the ‘kickback’ or hip thrust exercise. Commercially available Hip Thruster and BootySprout are two examples of such gym equipment which comprise a bench having a platform for upper back, a foot platform and multiple attachment points for resistance bands.
Most exercise weight/force adjustment mechanisms employed in strengthening machines adjust desired output force by changing the initial input force entering the system, mainly through addition, or subtraction of a multitude of input force sources, such as weight plates in a weight stack, dumbbells, traditional springs, electromagnetic resistance, air pressure resistance, flywheel inertia, composite rods, or resistance bands/rods connected to the force delivery component (e.g. handle, cable or chain). For example, commercially available Booty Builder uses a selectorizer system including a plurality of weight plates in a stack.
Thus, prior proposed glute exercise apparatuses generally require direct addition or removal of resistance mechanisms to achieve a variety of workout loads.
Accordingly, improvements are sought in terms of cost-effective, compact apparatus for exercising the glute and related muscle groups.